Everybody knew the governor's casino plan and the racino proposal faced a big hurdle in the Senate Agriculture, Veterans and Gambling Committee, but when both were defeated by bipartisan votes it was still a key moment in the 2005 session. Specifically, the vote was 10-4 against both bills. MPR's Michael Khoo has one of the better quotes of the year:

Pawlenty chief of staff Dan McElroy said the legislation can still be revived.

"Good bills are like bread. They have to be kneaded and patted and bounced. And they have to rise. And sometimes they fall. And then they may rise again. And so this loaf shall rise again."

No doubt. But does it have enough yeast? In the Pioneer Press, Patrick Sweeney suggests the bakers are hard at work, and that they may settle for half a loaf:

But a decision by Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Republican House leaders to postpone casino votes today in the House Tax Committee was a more important sign that the move to expand gambling in Minnesota is facing significant opposition from lawmakers.

In an interview before the Senate committee voted, House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said members of Pawlenty's staff requested a delay in the Tax Committee votes because they feared the casino bills might be defeated.

"The governor's office wanted some opportunity, some time, to develop a different strategy," Sviggum said.

A merger between the two casino plans — a state-tribal partnership that Pawlenty advocated, and a rival plan promoted by the owners of Canterbury Park racetrack in Shakopee — could be the next step.

McElroy and Pawlenty are now saying a vote against the casino plan is tantamount to a vote to increase taxes. But Sweeney notes that argument cuts two ways.

"Our governor," Sen. Becky Lourey, DFL-Kerrick, said, "feels that he can break his promises to the tribes, but he cannot break his no-new-taxes pledge, and that's where the problem lies."

While the governor's effort to raise some money hit a roadblock, a proposal to spend more on a stadium is alive and well. The stadium in question is for outdoor football at the University of Minnesota. The state's share of the $235 million facility would be $7 million per year for 25 years. Could the bill get tangled up with other stadium proposals in the closing days of the session? The Pioneer Press' Aron Kahn suggests yes:

Indeed, lobbyists for the Twins and Vikings were in the committee room, taking note of the bill's success. Asked after the vote if those teams might encourage another legislator to try to amend the bill to include funding of professional stadiums, [Rep. Ron]Abrams said "shame on them'' if they do.

Legislative history would prove that amending the bill is entirely possible, but the university would be expected to fight such an attempt because funding three stadiums would make the measure much more controversial.

I found quite a contrast between two other items in the news today. The first, a rant from former Gov. Jesse Ventura as reported by Dane Smith in the Star Tribune:

Ventura always was a provocateur as governor, but his act since he left the governor's office has gotten ever more outrageous. At one point he told the students that it was hypocritical for people of his free-love generation to urge sexual abstinence. "Make all the love you want, just use a condom. ... If it feels good, do it; I did." His language has become considerably saltier.

Near the end of his speech, he joked that he was indeed a "sexual tyrannosaurus" and that "you could just ask the First Lady."

And he was as harsh as ever in criticizing the media. Pointing to reporters in the front row, he called them "Bozos" and reiterated his labeling of reporters as "pedophiles" because of stories written about his son's behavior at the governor's residence.

Outrageous, dude! Now the other story. It's from the Associated Press on the funeral in Rochester yesterday:

Friends and family who gathered to remember fallen Spc. Travis Bruce said he was a man who wanted to prove he could do anything - and what he wanted to do was serve his country.

More than 500 people gathered at Bethel Lutheran Church in Rochester for Bruce's funeral on Monday. The 22-year-old was killed March 23 by a rocket-propelled grenade as he stood on a rooftop guarding an Iraqi police station in Baghdad, relatives and the U.S. Army said.

"I love my son, very much. He loved his father too," said Bruce's father, Kenneth, at the funeral service. "We had such great times together and I just hope everyone here understands what it means to give the ultimate sacrifice for their country. My son did, and I'm so proud of him."

I don't know how you feel about it, but the entire Ventura era just seems so long ago, so pre-9/11, that it's just hard for me to pay much attention to our former governor.